Tour de France | Another drug bust leaves Tour wobbly

NARBONNE, France — With the competition reduced to an afterthought, the Tour de France was rocked by another drug bust Thursday that left cycling's showpiece event all but synonymous with doping.

This was the third time in this race that a rider has been caught, and it netted the biggest name yet: Italy's Riccardo Ricco, a winner of two stages.

"You can't believe that a wave of a magic wand can change the world of cycling," Patrice Clerc, head of Tour organizer ASO, told a news conference. "It's going to take time."

Ricco was expelled from the race and detained by police to the boos of fans. His Saunier Duval team pulled out of the Tour.

This is the third straight year the race has been undercut by doping.

The day's 12th stage was won by Mark Cavendish of Britain while Cadel Evans of Australia retained the yellow jersey. But, as is often the case in cycling, drugs overshadowed all.

"May the cheaters get caught. May they go away," Tour president Christian Prudhomme said. "I said to the riders before the race, behind closed doors, that you have the key. ... Some didn't get the message."

Evans welcomed the drug busts, and that "the sport is being cleaned up in serious, fair and transparent way. Our sport is being crucified for doing the right thing."

Spanish riders Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado were expelled from the race earlier. All three were ousted for the performance enhancer EPO.

Police searching Nevado's hotel room in Tarbes found "numerous small medical materials like syringes, needles and medical drip bags, which theoretically a cyclist should not have in his room," said Gerard Aldige, the state prosecutor in Tarbes.

"It's just amazing. It's irresponsible," said David Millar, a British rider with the Garmin-Chipotle team, said of Ricco's expulsion. "This guy does not have any love or care for the sport."

Millar, who rode with Saunier Duval last year, has become a leading critic of drug use after serving a two-year doping ban.

Some of Ricco's teammates had already taken the starting line before returning to the team bus when Ricco's positive result was announced just before the stage began.

"It's a team decision not to start the race," Saunier Duval sporting director Matxin Fernandez said. "He's our leader. We can't act as if nothing happened."

Ricco, the Giro d'Italia runner-up, won the sixth and ninth stages of this Tour and was ninth overall. He led the "King of the Mountains" competition as the Tour's best climber.

"We are learning that things that look too good to be true are too good to be true," Millar said.

Ricco had come under suspicion about what he says is his naturally high hematocrit level — the volume of red blood cells. High hematocrit levels can suggest EPO use but do not confirm it.

He had said he has had high hematocrit levels "since I was little," adding he hoped "everybody will stop speaking about that."

Ricco's popularity in Italy had rocketed with his two stage wins. The rider has said his idol was Marco Pantani, who in 1998 became the last Italian to win the Tour. Pantani faced doping allegations throughout his career and died of a cocaine overdose in 2004.